
Bil. KliiK’S DISCOURSE 


BEFOKE THE 

Soxitti} for tl)C Jroiiiolioii of CoIIegiafe iiiifr 
®lKoIflgttitl ^biuntioii: at tlje ®cst. 

X0;¥KMBIE,, IC I.8S6. 























THE CHURCH AND THE COLLEGE. 


A 


DISCOUHSE 


DELIVERED AT THE 


THIRTP]ENTH ANNIVERSARY 


OF THE 


Socictg far tl)e |]romotion of (Solkgiate anb $l)eological 
(Eirucation at tlje UUst, 


IN THE 


FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BRIDGEPORT, CT. 



BY EDWARD N. KIRK, D. D, 



PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 
1 8 56 . 






4-:br 

I2A-0 


“ The thanks of the Board were presented to the Rev. E. N. Kirk, D. D., 
for his interesting and instructive Discourse delivered before the Society, and 
a copy was requested for publication.” 

An extract from the Minutes of tlie Proceedings of the Directors of the 
Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the 
West, at their Annual Meeting at Bridgeport, Connecticut, November 11, 
1856. 


JOHN CROWELL, Secretary. 


/ 


DISCOURSE. 


MATTHEW V. 15. 

YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 

Each disciple of Christ, on reading this decla¬ 
ration, should say: “ That is addressed to me; and 
this is one of my titles. I am denominated by my 
Lord, an illuminator of the world.” For this is 
true of the Church considered as a body of men, 
as well as of the individual believers who com¬ 
pose that body. 

The sacred history informs us that “ God made 
the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser 
light to rule the night.” The wisdom and benefi¬ 
cence of that ordination are very manifest. The 
right to do it, none can question. And if the sun 
and moon were rational creatures, none would 
doubt either their indebtedness for the privileges 
of that important position, or their obligation to 
obey Him who ordained them to their beneficent 
office. Nor will any true disciple of Christ hesitate 
to acknowledge the honor and favor conferred on 
him, in being appointed to reflect the light he gets 
from the Sun of righteousness, on a world lying 
in the darkness of unbelief. When either half of 




4 


our earth turns away from the sun, the shades of 
night overspread it; and the friendly aid of the 
moon and stars is required to relieve it from the 
horrors of utter darkness. So the human race, 
having turned by unbelief from God, the fountain 
of light, needs some reflector, some moral moon 
in its heavens, to catch and reflect upon it his 
life-giving beams. That reflector is the Church of 
Christ, or the true disciple of Christ; for he has 
the true light, the means of diffusing it, and the 
motives to induce this beneficent action on his 
part. By appointing his people to this office, our 
Saviour implies what he elsewhere states, that 

I. The world is in darkness. 

Unbelief and prejudice, in the human heart, 
have extinguished the knowledge of God. The 
light of science may still shine, philosophy and 
literature may still be found relieving portions of 
the race from absolute barbarism; but the higher 
forms of truth are lost to mankind, as a race. 
When it is declared that “ the light shineth in 
darkness,” it means that men live in spiritual 
darkness, and cannot perceive the glory of Christ. 
We may contemplate this darkness, 

1. As it affects individuals. On all the vital 
elements of truth, the cardinal points, on which 
hinge the salvation of man, every one is naturally 
blind. There is, in mankind, an utter ignorance 
of God, of themselves, of sin, of the way of return 
to God, and of the way of communing with God. 
Men know how to sustain their natural life, to 
gratify their earthly desires; but how to love God 


5 


and one another, how to prepare for a holy and 
blessed eternity, they know not. This darkness, 
then, carries its baleful effects beyond the indi¬ 
vidual man, and 

2. Most perniciously affects human society. How 
can it be otherwise % It is a darkness that unfits 
man both for the station he occupies as a subject 
of God’s moral empire, and for his place in the 
great social system. It is that form of darkness 
which leaves the seMsh passions in the ascendant. 
Let us follow it, in one direction, and trace its 
effects. If men lived in the light of God’s law, 
they would love one another; oppression, ambition, 
fraud, avarice, injustice would be unknown; every 
public man would be an honest public servant, 
placing the public welfare above personal interests. 
But is it so now'? Look, for a reply, into our 
political condition. 

Next to religious ignorance or error, there is no 
darkness more hurtful to man than that which 
obscures the vision of society in its relations to 
the government and providence of God. Wrong, 
contracted and low conceptions of the duties and 
responsibilities of law-makers, judges and magis¬ 
trates, are incompatible with the long continuance 
of civil ffeedom and a high civilization. When 
the public interests are committed to men who 
have no conception of the magnitude of those 
interests, no true knowledge of God, no sense of 
their own responsibilities, the movements of the 
political world have come to resemble the fabled 
course of the sun’s chariot, driven by one who 
had more self-confidence than wisdom. When we 


6 


remember that the permanence and prosperity of a 
free state depend on the wisdom, prudence and 
integrity of its leaders, and then turn our attention 
to public affairs, the sight is appalling. 

Our own is a favored land ; and yet what we see 
here, in the higher walks of political life, alarms us. 
We look for high conceptions of statesmanship ; 
for lofty views of the design of civil government. 
But what is, in reality, the character of our public 
men; what are their style of statesmanship, their 
qualities and qualifications ] In regard to many, 
the answer is hiuniliating. Intellectual and moral 
darkness reign in those very regions of society 
where moral light is indispensable. Are our 
statesmen political philosophers, men profoundly 
versed in the science of society and of government ? 
Have all our leaders seen that the organism of 
civil society is hardly a secular institution; that it 
borders on the kingdom of Christ; that it is 
almost religious in the purity and sublimity of its 
principles, and m the demand it makes for purity 
and loftiness of motive in its rulers'? Have they 
walked in the holy presence of justice, and in the 
light of her countenance learned to reverence the 
rights of the weak'? On the contrary, have not 
politics extensively come to be, with us, an article 
of trade; of a trade whose principles disgrace a 
Christian community! 

There are, of course, most honorable exceptions. 
I speak of that which is too prevalent. In our 
legislative halls, there is much moral darkness; 
especially in the national legislature. Many there 
have never seen law-making as the solemn execu- 


7 


tion of God’s will, nor themselves as the representa¬ 
tives of God. They regard law as the expression 
of the majority’s will; whereas it is the expression 
and application of eternal principles to temporary 
circumstances, not an expression of human will, 
but a supernatural emanation of divine authority 
and will. It is not then surprising, if they degrade 
it to be an embodiment of violence, avarice and 
ambition; to be clothed with solemn forms ; and 
then, in mockery of^justice, to be executed by her 
grave, revered, and high-minded ministers, in her 
august tribunals ! And the laws made by such men 
are sent forth to bind the conscience of a nation; 
and even declared to be of higher authority than 
the law of God; to be obeyed, even if in obeying 
them we must trample on his. Is there not dark¬ 
ness in the land, gross darkness on the people 'I 
And who can say that his ideal of patriotism is 
often realized in public men ; that the political 
principles which govern us, can carry us to a 
glorious future'? This may not alarm the man 
who mtends to be merely a merchant, or a farmer, 
or any thing else, and to sink his manhood in his 
avocation. These are, indeed, rather prosperous 
times for money-making, and money-spending; but 
it is a perilous period for those sublime principles 
on which a Christian society is built. Legislation 
has come down to a very low level. For a time, 
indeed, this process may not reach its crisis ; the 
people may continue to reverence law-makers and 
judges who are unworthy of their station; since a 
reverence for law may be transferred, even to a 
Jeffreys. But, at length, a Jeffreys ends by 


8 


transferring men’s contempt for his person to his 
office. 

Our political history is but one of a thousand 
illustrations of that tendency to degeneracy which 
belongs to human society. “ Men love dark¬ 
ness rather than light.” The rulers, the law¬ 
makers, the leaders of society see every thing 
through the misty atmosphere of selfishness. And 
the people, while they see that the whole social 
machine is working irregularly, know not where 
the friction is, or what remedy is to be applied. 

Fellow-citizens, we are not, as a people, prepared 
to inherit the noble patrimony of our own institu¬ 
tions. There is a degeneracy which shows that 
these institutions came from a higher source than 
the people who possess them. We have declined 
from the lofty position of our fathers, and of a 
noble ancestry in Great Britain. What a magistracy 
has England had! What a body of men was that 
which formed the Constitution of the United States ! 
And the true masters of English law, the judges 
who rendered her tribunals sacred as temples of 
God, the eternal Judge,—what a lofty race! We 
have, indeed, preserved the integrity of our judi¬ 
ciary ; but our magistracy and our legislative bodies 
have not retained the elevated character of those 
who distinguished the best days of English or 
American history. 

We might carry our investigations, in the same 
manner, through every department of social life 
—especially our literature—and show how darkness 
there abounds; and what evils it is inflicting. But 
sufficient has been said to show the need there is 


9 


of light from heaven, to shine on the heart of man; 
and, through individual man, on society. 

What, then, fellow-disciples, are our relations to 
this darkness 1 The Master replies : Ye are the 
light of the world.” In other words, 

II. The disciples of Christ are appointed to 

REMOVE THE MORAL DARKNESS OF THE WORLD. 

This principle, of course, needs some qualifica¬ 
tions. 

1. We are hound to desire that it may he removed. 
It is dishonoring to God; degrading, and every 
way pernicious to man. This cannot he questioned. 
Then the benevolence which Christ inculcates, 
includes the most earnest desire that all religious 
error and spiritual delusion may pass froih every 
intelligent being ; that all the errors and the igno¬ 
rance which retard the improvement and happiness 
of man and society may be destroyed; that every 
individual may receive the full advantages of the 
highest possible culture. And, if bound to desire 
it, then— 

2. We must employ the appropriate means to secure 
it^ so far as they may he in our power. The Chris¬ 
tian is not, indeed, required to secure the spiritual 
illumination of every human being; nor to remove 
all kinds of ignorance from any mind. But he is 
bound to secure, by his personal example, by his 
use of speech and writing, and by combined efforts 
with his fellow-disciples, the support of all religious 
institutions, and the distribution of the Bible and 
its truths as far as possible. Nor is this all. The 
providence of God has furnished his people with an 

2 


10 


instrument of immense power for enlightening the 
race, for preserving human society, and for build¬ 
ing up the kingdom of Christ. That instrument is 

EDUCATION. 

I am aware that an impression has extensively 
prevailed in the Church, that intellectual cultiva¬ 
tion does not come within her province; that it is 
not demanded for the advancement of Christ’s king¬ 
dom. This error must be totally eradicated from 
every Christian’s mind. Education is one of the 
mightiest instruments of moral power put into the 
hands of man, either for good or evil. It has three 
departments, each of which belongs to the Church 
of God, as a portion of its artillery in contending 
against and conquering the Prince of Darkness. 
It expands the intellectual faculties, and so, mul¬ 
tiplies each mind into a thousand or a million ; 
it furnishes the mind with knowledge, which is 
power; it cultivates the moral faculties, and thus 
makes the man more complete in his manhood, and 
fits him for his place in the social sphere. 

Now, each of these results of education the 
Church of Christ is bound to secure by the utmost 
zeal and exertion. She has no right to dispense 
with one of them, nor to leave them in the hands 
of those who walk not in the light of Christ’s 
Word and Spirit. 

If any think that intellectual culture is not 
needed, even directly in the service of Christ, we 
refer them to the whole experience of the Church. 
Although the modern form of educational institu¬ 
tions is not a thousand years old, yet we have evi- 


11 


dence, from the earliest scriptural records, of the 
alliance between high intellectual culture and true 
piety, as demanded for the higher service of the 
kingdom of God. Not to notice the proofs of this 
which are furnished by the poetry, the theology, 
and the historical writings of Job, David, Isaiah, 
Ezekiel and Daniel; not to notice the training of 
the Apostles in that peripatetic school of theology 
whose advantages must forever forbid all preten¬ 
sions to rivalship, \e pause at two points in the 
Sacred History, to observe that two of the most 
important positions in that Church and Kingdom 
were occupied by Moses, the Lawgiver, and Paul, 
the Apostle of the Gentile world. These men 
were appointed to be its leaders in two of its most 
critical periods. Moses was called to act as the 
ambassador of Jehovah in the court of Egypt, un¬ 
der one of its distinguished dynasties. He was 
appointed the general in the Lord’s army, legis¬ 
lator, poet, prophet, mediator, judge, guide and 
viceroy of that chosen people in their perilous and 
arduous migration. In his person all the highest 
offices, civil and ecclesiastical, were combined. 
Paul was called to the apostleship at another tran¬ 
sition-period of the Church, just as she was coming 
into being in an organic form, under the Christian 
system. To him it was given, by an extraordinary 
dispensation, to see the person of his ascended 
Lord, and to receive direct instruction from him. 
He was made chief preacher to the Gentile peo¬ 
ples, chief theologian to the Church, chief pastor, 
chief guide in practical matters, in all ages. 

But both these men were peculiarly trained, by 


12 


a previous education, for these peculiar offices and 
services. The treasures of secular and sacred liter¬ 
ature were theirs; the culture of Egypt and Greece 
they respectively enjoyed—the very highest which 
their days could furnish. Egypt, at the time of 
Moses, was at the head of the nations m science, 
art, philosophy, and general culture. But Moses, 
we are expressly told, was learned in all the wis¬ 
dom of the Egyptians.” Of a studious mind, thor¬ 
oughly instructed in theology by his parents, and 
living in highest favor at the court, he went to the 
colleges, both of Egypt and of Israel, such as they 
then were. And Paul’s position was made, in the 
providence of God, equally favorable. First study¬ 
ing in Tarsus; probably, to a great extent, availing 
himself of all that Homer and Plato, that Archi¬ 
medes and Hesiod could teach him. We say prob¬ 
ably, both because the opportunity was furnished 
him, and his own inclination, seconded by the 
views of his parents, would lead him to do it. As 
to his opportunities, Strabo informs us that Tarsus 
ranked at that time with Alexandria in the number 
of its schools and scholars. And, after enjoying 
the advantages of that city for acquiring secular 
learning, he went to Jerusalem, to study sacred 
science at the feet of its great master. And when 
he afterward found it necessary to defend himself, 
on one occasion in Jerusalem, against disparaging 
views, he deemed it a sufficient evidence of his 
qualifications for his eminent position as a relig¬ 
ious teacher and reformer, to say, “ I am a Jew, 
born in Tarsus, yet brought up in this city, at the 
feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the per- 


13 


feet manner of the law of the fathers.” Thus 
these two distinguished servants of God and his 
Church shared, with the master spirits of pagan 
literature, the beneficial infiuences of that culture ; 
and then were taught in a school whose threshold 
Plato and Socrates never crossed; though they 
seemed, humble and suppliant, to long for its 
teachings. 

And to this we add, that if our survey of eccle¬ 
siastical history ^^Te extended to its connection 
with education, we should traverse a much wider 
field than that of merely training the clergy. We 
should see the history of human education in Eu¬ 
rope for the last eighteen centuries, and in America 
for more than two centuries, to be almost identical 
with the history of the Church. We should point 
to every prominent educational institution, from 
which the leaders of the world have gone forth, 
trained for their work, and say, Behold a school 
founded by the Church of Christ, and conducted 
by her sons. Is she not the Light of the World 1 

It must farther be considered, that dependence 
can be placed, even by the world, upon none others 
than the disciples of Christ, to secure the thorough 
education of the world. Much less can the Church 
throw oif her responsibility on others. “Ye are 
the light of the world.” That is your commission 
and calling. There may be other illuminators of 
the world ; scientific men, owning no allegiance to 
Christ, who will enlarge the boundaries of human 
knowledge ; historians, philosophers, journalists 
and teachers, beyond the pale of the Church, who. 
will labor to instruct and elevate the minds of men 


14 


by the quickening and refining power of truth. 
Philanthropists, too, not of the Church, will be 
zealous and efficient supporters of educational 
institutions. Yet it remains true that, in a pecu¬ 
liar sense and to a peculiar degree, the Church and 
its members are the light of the world. Derogat¬ 
ing nothing from the value of other men’s labors, 
it is not presumptuous in a Christian to affirm, nor 
difficult for him to prove, that the Church is, and 
must be, the Earth’s Educator. This affirmation is 
made with a distinct remembrance of the fact, that 
science can be cultivated in the absence of piety; 
that learning and genius flourish as well without, 
as within the sacred enclosure. But neither sci¬ 
ence nor learning constitutes education. They are 
but subordinate instruments in the great process of 
unfolding and moulding the human spirit. 

That upon which I here earnestly insist, is;— 
that the real educators of mankind must be those 
who have the Christian spirit; and that to such 
must society mainly look for assurance that this 
great department of its interests will be thor¬ 
oughly provided for. Man is not educated unless 
his moral and religious nature has been as fully 
developed as his intellectual powers. Therefore 
we want godly instructors. Nor has society a 
sufficient guaranty of patriotic zeal strong enough 
and pure enough for the vigorous maintenance of 
public education on this high ground, except in the 
piety of Christ’s true disciples. 

In view of these facts, what a field does our 
country open to Christian philanthropy! Indeed, 
we may ask, what wider, grander field ever pre- 


15 


sented itself to the eye of Christian zeal, than this 
expanding nation'? The problem of raising this 
people to the summit of personal and national 
excellence, is one of the most magnificent the mind 
of man ever conceived, as a practical reality. How 
shall this scattered and numerous population, so 
free in action, so pressed with the allurements to a 
merely material development, so divided in opinion 
on all the higher questions of human duty and 
well-being; how ^all this community, swelling 
with such fearful rapidity into additional millions, 
he' properly educated'? It is a question embracing 
interests so vast, that the soul with fear contem¬ 
plates them as yet unsecured; as yet, in any meas¬ 
ure, thrown back on our hands for a practical 
solution. 

If it be a question of forming a pure national 
literature, by a profound inquiry after those sources 
of corruption which have infected that of almost 
every former age; by the infusion into it of the 
Christian element, more completely than has been 
done, even in our sterling old English literature ; 
by securing a higher standard of excellence for 
those professions which most profoundly affect the 
character of the national mind and literature; 
especially the teacher’s, the author’s, and the jour¬ 
nalist’s vocation;—if it be a question of furnish¬ 
ing models to the new nations that are yet to 
spring up in the lands now debased by despotism, 
and that look for guidance to England, because she 
is Protestant and venerable; more to America, 
because she is Protestant and unencmnbered by 
effete customs and institutions;—in each of these 


16 


aspects, the enlightened follower of Jesus must 
regard the subject as one of the profoundest 
interest. 

We may then suppose every intelligent Chris¬ 
tian to regard himself as, hi his measure, bound to 
enlighten the world; to secure the employment of 
all proper means for elevating and cultivating the 
human mind; for instructing men in the truths of 
the gospel; and for spreading the healthful influ¬ 
ence of the gospel through society. This, there¬ 
fore, implies that among her institutions, the 
Church of Christ is to place the whole system 
of educational forces; and prominently, that per¬ 
manent, expansive, and potent instrument, which 
we denominate, the College. I say, prominently ; 
because it combines, in an eminent degree, the 
entire range of educational power; the intellectual, 
the moral, and the religious. 

Let us then bring more closely to our view the 
College, first as a cultivator of the intellect; by 
placing it in friendly contrast with the academy, on 
the one hand, and the professional school, on the 
other. The first aims only at making the pupil 
ready for study; the latter, only at specific prepara¬ 
tion for a particular line of action. The school 
forms the child; the professional seminary, the 
artist; but the College cultivates the developed 
manhood. This has probably led to the denomina¬ 
tion of its course of study as “ liberal.” It has no 
contracted, utilitarian design. It looks beyond the' 
specific adaptation of its pupil to a limited sphere 
of action, and seeks to brmg the whole manhood 
into maturity, symmetry and strength; to introduce 


17 


the soul to the infinite domain of Truth, and train 
it to ascend those dizzy heights, walk on those nar¬ 
row paths, and sound those profound depths, where 
her treasures are deposited. 

And while it is generally conceded that the intel¬ 
lectual infiuence of the College is very great, we 
discover, in a popular impression, the evidence that 
even in this respect our system of public education 
is not fully appreci^ed. I allude to the phrases so 
often repeated ; “ untaught men of genius,” “ self- 
made men,”—and to the prodigies performed by 
“ self-educated men.” I would ask whether there 
are, in fact, any such men. Who can tell what 
other bard struck from Homer’s soul the poetic 
spark ] Plato had his Socrates, and Socrates had 
studied in the schools of the very sophists whom 
he so vigorously assailed. We have seen a Shake¬ 
speare, who never entered within the lists of a 
College curriculum. But that man never learned 
his pure, vigorous English, among the uneducated 
associates of his youth. Oxford and Cambridge as 
really trained and taught Shakespeare, as if he had 
lived within their walls. We have never seen a 
Bunyan, that had enjoyed no benefit from other 
men’s studies, and had not received the results of 
high cultivation, in one of the richest of living 
languages ; a language more completely penetrated 
with the sublime theology of the gospel than any 
other. It is said that Bunyan had but two books 
in the prison where he wrote his dream. But is it 
forgotten that one of those books was the Eng¬ 
lish Bible, the purest fountain of inspiration, of 
thought, sentiment and expression? And this 
3 


18 


Bible (probably King James’s version) was trans 
lated by Oxford and Cambridge men. Was Ban¬ 
yan, then, self-educated"? No man of active mind 
can breathe the same atmosphere with a Christian 
College, and not be taught and trained by it, more 
or less. 

To estimate aright the moral influence of the 
College, we must observe that it takes its pupil 
from the family, and just at that critical period of 
his life when the youth is insensibly becoming the 
man. Other teachers having accomplished their 
work on him, for good or for evil; he now comes 
under new teachers and new influences, which will 
put the last moulding hand upon him. If the bad 
influences have been in the ascendant, here is gen¬ 
erally the last hope of their being comiteracted; if 
the good, here they receive a powerful impulse and 
confirmation. It is true, the family and the school 
have had a great work to perform for that youth 
before he enters into that peculiar community. 
But here a new set of moral forces meet him; 
more powerful than any thing that has gone before, 
because the intellect is now more quickened and 
expanded. No teacher, after the mother, can have 
so much power to mould his pupils, as the College 
instructor. And probably character never passes 
through a more severe crucible than in the com¬ 
panionship of these communities. And what is 
called the ruin of a young man in College, is often 
but the completion of a destructive course which 
College-influences have retarded; but for which 
they are not to be held responsible. 

Every incentive in a Christian College, except 


19 


that intercourse with the vicious which belongs 
equally to each walk of life, is of a beneficial ten¬ 
dency. The personal character of the instructors 
is a power. Not to speak of the living—which we 
might do with much advantage to our argument-— 
recall Appleton, Dwight, Mason, Olin ; lofty mod¬ 
els of manhood, ‘‘ living epistles ” daily read by 
their admiring pupils. Think of the influence of 
their social and pr^essional intercourse. It may, 
indeed, sometimes have become monotonous and 
dull, but it was always salutary; restraining the 
exuberance of youthful levity; quickening its tor¬ 
pid faculties ; reducing to order and method, its 
irregular tendencies. The mind is a vast store¬ 
house of various powers, of which the lower and 
coarser would be developed by mere brute-necessity. 
The higher, the grander, those which make the 
crowning glory of humanity, demand a special, 
skillful, protracted cultivation. They must be 
brought from weakness to strength; and when 
strong, must be rightly balanced. Who, then, 
shall do this ; and how shall it be done ] It must 
be done by men themselves highly educated; expe¬ 
rienced in the sublime art of educating; supported 
honorably in it as a profession ; compelled to waste 
no power or time on the direct work of providing 
their temporal support. These men must be organ¬ 
ized, in order to secure unity of effort in instruc¬ 
tion and government. Each student must come to 
live with other students, in a temporary society; 
for he must learn to live with man; must feel the 
impulse of emulation; and by this social and 
scholastic contact, endure the abrasion of offensive 


20 


peculiarities, gauge his own powers, and learn to 
estimate aright those of his fellows. There must, 
therefore, be a College-building, a scientific appa¬ 
ratus, and a library. There must be endowments 
for professorships, since College-education must 
always be so far a gratuity that the poor man’s son 
may enjoy all its advantages. 

The moral influence of the College, however, 
spreads out through society. There we see its 
effects on the literature of a country. When a 
thoroughly educated corps of religious men has in 
charge the youth of our land, founding their instruc¬ 
tions on the truths revealed in the Bible, the high¬ 
est security is given that the literature of that land 
will be mainly pure in tone, and healthy in its 
influence. If, on the contrary, the educators be 
infidel, or only semi-Christian, either an efi'eminate 
or a corrupting literature will prevail; and science 
itself, ‘‘ of the earth, earthy,” originating in matter 
and earth, will end where it began ; debasing pub¬ 
lic sentiment, and stifling all the finer and nobler 
sentiments of the people. No form of civiliza¬ 
tion has ever perpetuated itself without the aid of 
institutions. But, institutions having originated 
from the very necessities of civilized life, must 
always reflect the peculiar image of that civiliza¬ 
tion whether pagan, infidel, or Christian. If the 
disciples of Christ are not sufficiently enlightened 
and benevolent to provide Christian Colleges, then 
the world will make to itself infidel Colleges; 
and then we shall have a godless society, for it is 
indisputably certain that the Christian College is 
indispensable to the perpetuity of Christian civili- 


21 


zation. Infidelity gains a complete social ascen¬ 
dency when she has stamped science and literature 
with her own image, and has made science and 
Christianity mutually scornful and hostile. 

Look still, in another direction, at the impor¬ 
tance of a sound education in reference to the 
public interests. Civil polity, sound morality, true 
philosophy, and history, must be thoroughly taught 
wherever a high civ^ization and civil freedom are 
to be sustained. No nation can advance without 
the aid of the experience of other nations and other 
generations of men. The teachings of history are 
therefore indispensable to at least the leaders of 
society. Without them, each generation is but to 
stumble just where others stumbled, repeat ancient 
follies, and preserve a perpetual national childhood. 
How solemn and salutary are the warnings of his¬ 
tory ! She teaches, from every record of a departed 
nation, the absolute necessity of a national con¬ 
science and national faith. She shows that mate¬ 
rial wealth, and mechanical skill, and artistic 
refinement uncontrolled by these heavenly influ¬ 
ences, only serve to decorate the sepulchre of a 
nation with such splendid mausoleums as now 
stand in melancholy grandeur on the plains of 
Greece, around the capitol of Eome, and under the 
earth-mounds of Babylon. Therefore society must 
secure to itself, by some means, the training of 
men who can bring the light of the past, and the 
light of spiritual principles, to shine on the ordi¬ 
nary walks of life, and on the great path of a 
nation’s policy. There is not a dreary road to ruin, 
in which our beloved country is now exposed to 

d 



22 


be led, that is not marked in blood-red characters 
on the records of the past. 

But the Christian College is pre-eminently the 
place where this noble study of history is pursued; 
although, as yet, not with sufficient thoroughness. 
So that the College is a peculiar institution, which 
can be superseded by no other. In estimating its 
moral influence, we must observe its effect on the 
pupils; and thus see it affecting society through 
them. Whatever may be said of them, depend on 
this. Colleges never promote a corrupting influence 
on the public mind. Graduates may; but, in doing 
so, they are false to the lessons of wisdom imparted 
by the example and instructions of their teachers. 
Not a principle has been inculcated there which 
does not tend to elevate the man, and to make him 
a diffuser of good to the world. In all the course 
of his studies he has learned only the beauty of 
virtue, and the balefulness of vice, even under its 
most specious masks. It is through the educated 
men of the land, then, that the diffusion of right 
principles is to take place. And thus the Church 
is to accomplish, indirectly, much which directly 
she may not do. 

Then it remains for us to notice the College as 
a means of promoting personal piety in the pupils, 
and of securing the ascendency of Christian princi¬ 
ples in the community. Let me here repeat, that 
we mean by a College, a Christian institution; one 
founded on the principles of Christ’s gospel, and 
governed by them; aiming at the most complete 
development of Christian manhood; holding sci¬ 
ence and literature as mere instruments, to be 


23 


guided and sanctified by the truth of the gospel, to 
the accomplishment of that great end. We have 
no reference to a literature which eschews the 
redemption of Christ; or to the science which 
knows not God in Christ; or to the education that 
makes polished and powerful enemies to the cross 
of Christ. Nor in all this do we advance any 
new views; we merely tread in the footsteps of the 
fathers. 

If 

Not only did the founders of Harvard and Yale 
Colleges avow their aim to be the training of a 
godly mmistry; but so fully was this intention 
carried out, that President Quincy thus speaks of 
Harvard University: “ It is a remarkable fact, in 
the history of this College, that a literary institu¬ 
tion, founded for the instruction of the whole peo¬ 
ple in general science,” (a very subordinate purpose 
with its founders,) “ should have been, from the 
first, spoken of and lauded and conducted, as 
though it had been a theological seminary.” And 
it is true of the early American Colleges, that they 
were almost all founded by the Church, and for 
religious ends; making all that is secular, subordi¬ 
nate and subservient to that which is sacred. And 
to this view of their object corresponds their his¬ 
tory. The history of New England is largely com¬ 
prehended in that of her Colleges. Nor is it 
hazardous to affirm, that without them she would 
never have been what she is, nor have occupied her 
present lofty position, intellectually, industrially, 
and religiously. Not only have the Colleges of 
America been an essential means of training the 
pastors and higher teachers of the country, but 


24 


they have also been eminently owned of God in 
promoting a religious spirit among the leading 
classes of the community. In them, almost with¬ 
out exception, the religious benefit of our young 
men has been sought as distinctly, and perhaps 
as earnestly and successfully, as their intellectual 
improvement. 

The College, viewed in one aspect, is not so 
sacred as the Church; for in the one, many things 
are appropriate, which would desecrate the other. 
Yet while not so exclusively religious in all its 
influences, in its great aim it is equally so; and 
always as religious as we choose to make it. What 
is the College? We derive the name from pagan 
Eome; but the institution is purely Christian. 
It is the beneficent dispenser of God’s highest 
intellectual gifts; the great gymnasium where the 
spiritual powers are trained; the fountain of light 
for the teachers of mankind. It is the hospital 
where ignorance is cured; it is the section of life’s 
highway where experience and inexperience come 
together in the most living and effective inter¬ 
course ; nay, it is the consecrated place where all 
the masters of thought, from remotest ages and 
lands, meet together to enrich the youthful mind of 
the present generation. There, Homer’s harp still 
sounds. There, Demosthenes still animates the 
soul to emulate his sublime eloquence; and Cicero 
still teaches how to become mighty in defence of 
truth. All sages, philosophers, statesmen, heroes, 
historians, poets and orators, there live a deathless 
life; to keep the world from gliding back to igno¬ 
rance and barbarism. What is the Christian Col- 


25 


lege ? The sacred place where Christian scholars 
teach, and govern, and counsel our young men; 
where the light of a godly example shines in the 
men whom our youth love to honor; where the 
worship of God is a.part of the daily life, and 
where daily prayer lays all the hallowed interests 
of the beloved youth under the dew of the mercy- 
seat. In the Christian College, Moses comes be¬ 
fore Socrates,—David bifore Homer,—Paul before 
Plato,—and Jesus Christ is on the throne. Over 
the sacred, classic inclosure, rests all day the cloud 
of a covenant-keeping God; and from its altar rises 
constantly the incense of interceding prayer. 

The Christian College is, indeed, man’s great 
instrument of general education. That is, it edu¬ 
cates men of all classes, and for all departments of 
life, more highly and under better influences than 
any other institution. And it is only in so far as 
it is Christian, that it is the nourisher, educator, 
and defender of civilized society. 

Noiseless, and apart from the stir of life, the 
Christian College is putting forth the magic wand 
that can paralyze those terriflc forces which are 
constantly endangering the peace and stability of 
the state. Infidelity always seizes upon some false 
philosophy, some superficial, scientific reasoning ; 
and with these, bewilders and perverts the unwary. 
Europe is now making large contributions to our 
native stock of arrogant and superficial skepticism. 
The pulpit and the press are the weapons to over¬ 
come it; but the forge and the anvil are in the 
College, and the armor-makers are there, in the 
retirement of those quiet halls, unobtrusively work- 
4 


26 


ing out the deliverance of the state. Skepticism 
may never meet these moral engineers in the con¬ 
flict, but she will feel their power in the blows of 
some well-trained arm, and appreciate their skill, 
as the allied armies met Todtleben in every earth- 
mound and bastion around Sebastopol. 

Our argument must now be closed. We have 
deemed it the more necessary, because our cir¬ 
cumstances call for a return to the noble views of 
the Pilgrim Fathers, if not to go beyond them. 
We understand them to have sought supremely 
the training of candidates for the ministry, while 
refusing to none the advantages of the same in¬ 
struction. If, however, they did see the subject 
in its full proportions ; if they had the conviction 
that the Church in some future day, when her 
members should have come to be but the h’action 
of an immense people, must undertake to mordd 
the thought and sentiment of that people by 
means of the profound, liberal, and Christian 
education of leading minds; if the idea of the 
Church sanctifying the science and literature of a 
vast nation, by making the College Christian, and 
the Christian College the controlling educational 
institution, was adopted by them, then a strange 
degeneracy in public sentiment must have taken 
place. For, it is certain that Christian men, in¬ 
cluding ministers and prominent laymen, had come 
to regard the College as a merely secular institu¬ 
tion, and of questionable advantage to the king¬ 
dom of Christ. 

An enlightened Christian benevolence, then, will 
prize the elementary and the professional schools. 


27 


But between them, on its own peculiar ground, 
alone and indispensable, stands the College. It alone 
trains the manhood of man, while it aims to make 
it a sanctified manhood. Not a study there pur¬ 
sued is useless to the. man, the Christian, or the 
citizen. A learned teacher, in defending a part 
of the curriculum, said, “ The question of such 
knowledge to a man, involves the question of the 
utility of being a man at all.” 

Our argument is closed, and it leads us to this 
practical conclusion, that we, the disciples of the 
Lord Jesus, must put our hearts, minds, hands, and 
purses to the execution of this vast enterprise; to 
secure the founding of Christian Colleges through¬ 
out our beloved country. We cannot throw the 
responsibility on others; especially as we are called 
only to lay foundations—others wiU build on them. 
And now we have an organization, by which it 
can be efiectually done. “Ye are the light of the 
world.” Your task is, to illuminate that world. 

Look, then, before we leave this high point of 
observation, at the peculiar condition of the West¬ 
ern States. While their circumstances are indefi¬ 
nitely more unfavorable to a healthful state of 
society than was found in the land of the Pilgrims, 
there is no such spirit there as founded the Pilgrim 
Colleges. The wisdom of the fathers is not found 
in the sons. They need Colleges, but know not, as 
a people, their own necessities. The few who 
do appreciate their wants, are those whose cry 
reaches us across prairies and mountains : “ Come 
over and help.” A little Spartan band is there, con¬ 
tending with peoples and influences which swarm 


28 


from the East, like the Persian armies on the Gre¬ 
cian shores, '\yhich shall prevaiH Or rather, 
shall we leave the feebler, who are our allies, and 
Christ’s servants, to contend against such outnum¬ 
bering hosts, without that mighty agency which 
secures to the East its civilization 1 This people are 
a part of ourselves, growing into a manhood that 
will speedily be strong; but whether good or bad, 
is a question that God has given, to a great extent, 
to be answered by Eastern Christians. 

The materializing tendency of Western life is 
conceded on all sides. To this is added the im¬ 
ported skepticism of England and Germany ; the 
most powerful in the latter case, because connected 
with the highest cultivation. But give us the 
Christian College, starting as it did in New Eng¬ 
land, wdth the very first forthgoing of society, and, 
under God, we may arrest the pernicious invaders. 
Give us the College, and we have secured the com¬ 
mon school; and the higher Christian modes of 
instruction in select schools will follow. 

In regard to the German neology, and the Ger¬ 
man settlers, including already a very large propor¬ 
tion of the white people of the West, we have 
enlisted men from their own ranks to fight our 
battle. Our Wittemberg, and Heidelberg, and 
German Evangelical Colleges, represent the three 
German forms of Protestantism, and therefore meet 
the various sentiments of that important part of 
our population. And shall we not then fix these 
institutions on ample and secure foundations 1 

But the main consideration to excite our fears, 
is not the transient phases of an immigrant society, 


29 


nor the rush of adventurers to rich lands and gold 
regions; it is not the rude chartism of one country, 
or the beer-befogged skepticism of another; it is 
the calm, shrewd, steady, systematic movement of 
the Jesuit order now attempting to do in Califor¬ 
nia, and in the Mississippi valley, what it once did 
in Austria; by the unobtrusive, unobserved power 
of the College, to subvert the principles of the 
Eeformation, and to crush the spirit of liberty. 

There, Brethren, there our great battle withHhe 
Jesuit, on Western soil, is to be waged. We must 
build College against College. If the musty atmos¬ 
phere of a Jesuit School suits the freeborn West¬ 
ern youth ; if the repetition of scholastic modes 
of discipline can captivate the child of the prairies, 
then we may fail in the contest. But all experience 
has confirmed our anticipation, that America is a 
field on which the open, manly, Christian disci¬ 
pline of a Protestant College must annihilate the 
rival system of Jesuitical instruction. In one of 
our Reports it is justly said: “We are persuaded 
that, so far as the higher institutions are concerned, 
the single cluster of Colleges aided by us, has 
already, and is destined to have more power over 
American society, than all the institutions of a 
similar class of which Borne can boast, on the field 
over which our operations extend.” This remark 
applies, however, only to the Mississippi valley. 
On the Pacific side, they are in advance of us; and 
we must overtake them there. 

The specific work directly before this Society, 
and by the hand of Providence pressed most urgent¬ 
ly upon us, is to finish our work east of the Mis- 


30 


sissippi, that we may carry our concentrated forces 
to meet the enemy on his own chosen battle-field, 
west of the great river—especially in the Pacific 
States—and drive, by an honorable competition and 
a Christian warfare, the Jesuit College and the 
Jesuit School, that last hope of Kome, forever from 
the soil sacred to truth, to godliness, to civil and 
religious freedom. 


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